University at Buffalo president closes shale-gas institute

Nov. 19, 2012

Written by

Jon Campbell

ALBANY — The University at Buffalo’s controversial shale-gas research institute was shut down Monday by the school’s president, less than two months after he penned a letter defending it to the board of the state university system.

In an open letter Monday, UB President Satish Tripathi said he decided to close the university’s Shale Resources and Society Institute after consulting with top administrators. The institute, which was officially launched in April, had found itself under a cloud of criticism for an inaugural report that was authored by researchers with ties to the natural gas industry.

“It is imperative that our faculty members adhere to rigorous standards of academic integrity, intellectual honesty, transparency and the highest ethical conduct in their work,” Tripathi wrote. “Because of these collective concerns, I have decided to close the Shale Resources and Society Institute.”

The Shale Resources and Society Institute was launched as a branch of the university dedicated to researching hydraulic fracturing and other issues related to shale-gas drilling. It released its first report in May. The report claimed Pennsylvania’s regulation of high-volume hydrofracking had become more effective in recent years and that New York’s proposed regulations would be even more so if the state were to allow the much-debated technique.

But the report led to allegations of bias and questions about how the institute was funded from fracking critics and members of the university’s faculty. The institute’s founders at one time sought industry funding and its co-director was being paid by the UB Foundation, the university’s quasi-public fundraising arm.

The State University of New York’s Board of Trustees got involved in early September, asking for the university to defend the study and clarify the circumstances surrounding the creation of the institute.

“As with all research at UB, regardless of the source of funding, it is not the role of the university nor of the funding source to dictate the conclusions drawn by faculty investigators,” UB Provost Charles Zukoski said in a statement at the time.